


many the miles

by dytabytes



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Everybody Lives, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-25 00:24:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/946469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dytabytes/pseuds/dytabytes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My take on the "Everybody lives and nothing hurts" trope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	many the miles

There's a quirk about the design of Crimson Typhoon's conn pod that no one really ever thought about. Because it was made to hold three pilots, rather than the usual two, it has a significantly increased amount of circuitry in order to process the triple link-up. Said circuitry is condensed into as small a space as possible, in order to minimize the elongation of Crimson's head. This does not affect the way that Crimson functions, but it does have a significant impact on the way the conn pod's weight is distributed. This is why, when Cheung wakes up, he is hanging from his Jaeger link up. Said link up is the only thing keeping him from falling forward, past his brothers, and into the frontal console of the pod.

"Shit," he says, because his brain is starting to fire up and he's piecing together what he can remember from before he was knocked out. There was Cherno and the kaiju which had surprised them with its tail and ... ah.

"Shit", he says again, louder, because now his memory brings him to the part where Crimson Typhoon's head had been torn off and he and his brothers had been sent flying which... explains why he's hanging like this. His voice wakes Jin, apparently, because his brother twitches in his harness to the front and left of Cheung, moaning and cursing (he's always been the loudest of the three of them) and that, in turn, wakes Hu with a start.

Hey! Status!" shouts Cheung, because he can see his brothers' backs, but nothing else of them, and he’s suddenly worried that they might have sustained more injury than he has.

"Anyone get the number of that bus that ran over me?" asks Jin, the little ass.

Meanwhile, Hu moans, "I'm in one piece, but only barely. If Jin got hit by a bus, I got hit by a train."

Cheung smiles despite himself as his brothers argue about who got hurt the most -- they lost against the kaiju, but they're still alive. If they're alive, they can get back on their feet. He has to be big brother now though, the strong one who starts them on the right path, so he stops indulging his pride in their ability to survive and whistles loudly to get his brothers’ attention.

"Stop whining, both of you, and let's figure out how to get out of here."

It takes some careful planning, but the three of them manage to release the link-ups enough that they can dangle down and land on the "ground", on the inside of Crimson's eye. The maneuvering is a little more difficult when the pod starts bobbing back and forth and they realize that they must be floating in the water, but they're the Wei Tang triplets and they've done more difficult things in the name of survival.

Clustered on the floor, all three of them intact, Cheung finally gathers his brothers in for the hug he’s been craving since he woke up. It's telling that Jin doesn't even make a cursory complaint, just squeezes back when the three of them come together. It really is a relief that they all made it.

"So." Hu's the first one to pull back, always looking to the future. "Where do we go from here?"

"We're disconnected from Crimson's body, so we've got no power right now. That means that communications are shot at the moment," says Jin, who is leaning up on tiptoe to try poking at the control panels. "And since it looks like no one's come for a rescue, our vital sign sensors are probably also gone."

"We're better off breaking out of here than waiting for help, then?" That's actually a relief. Cheung isn't a fan of sitting around and neither are his brothers.

Unfortunately, breaking out is harder to do than they thought it would be. When the kaiju tore their conn pod off, its claws must have mauled the emergency escape hatch just enough that it's stuck fast. That doesn't stop the brothers from trying to dislodge it, oh no. They whale on it with whatever they can find for a good hour, but even Jaeger pilots in peak condition get tired; especially when their bruises start throbbing and their stomachs remind them that they haven't had anything to eat or drink in... well. An unknown period of time. None of them carry watches into battle with them, after all.

Hu thinks they've probably been here about a day, but Jin thinks it's only been a few hours, because they haven't been rescued or eaten by a kaiju. Cheung just wants to get out so that they can contact LOCCENT and make sure that Hong Kong isn't a burning wreck. He doesn't think it is, not with Cherno and Striker there to take down the kaiju (and Gipsy too, maybe, because although he and his brothers are still unimpressed with Becket's performance, Mori is a hell of a pilot) but it would be nice to see his hometown with his own eyes and be completely certain.

They are huddled in the bottom of the conn pod again, this time much more tired than before. Hu and Cheung have their helmets off and Jin has stripped off as much of his drive suit as humanly possible without the help of their team. The humidity is becoming oppressive, but at least they have a bottle of water to pass around, scavenged from the emergency supplies in the escape pods.

Cheung nudges Jin, who has started to wilt noticeably. "Hey, take a nap. Hu, you too. We'll take shifts waiting for someone to find us, but we need to make sure that we're rested." He nods at Hu as his brother starts to protest. "I'll take first because I'm oldest."

Cheung's brothers nod, because "I'm oldest" is the one argument that they can't really counter, and they close their eyes, leaning back to back to settle in for some rest. Cheung stands, trying to stretch out his abused shoulder, and starts counting prime numbers in his head to stay awake.

It’s impossible to tell how long it is before they get out of the conn pod. They change shifts at least five times, but the length of their rotations isn’t set by anything except for how long they can stay awake without their eyelids drooping, and Cheung is certain that Hu and Jin must have skipped him at least once, just like he and Hu skipped Jin once or twice because the youngest gets protected whether he likes it or not. It’s during Jin’s rotation that the banging starts, though, and all of them startle into alertness.

“What do you think that is?”, whispers Hu, who is leaning into Cheung’s shoulder out of both fear and protectiveness.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Jin squares his shoulders and leans in towards the banging. “Hey!”

The banging stops suddenly, and a muffled voice sounds through the wall. Cheung can’t quite make out what it’s saying, but it looks like Jin can because he grins wide and starts shouting back. “Yeah, there’s three of us in here! We’d greatly appreciate help!”

The voice shouts back, and Cheung looks up to his little brother. “What did they say?”

“Heh. Not really sure, but he said something about getting us out?” Jin shrugs in that carefree way of his. “I think we should stand back, though. Just to be safe.”

The three of them huddle back from the escape hatch as a series of loud noises start clanking and creaking from the other side of it. It seems like forever (but is probably more like five minutes) before the door is yanked open by what appears to be a chain attached to a pick-up truck. An old woman grins at them.

“Ah! I recognize you from my daughter's magazines! You’re the Wei Tang brothers?”

“Yes, we are.” Cheung bows deeply in thanks, as do his brothers beside him. “Thank you very much for your assistance, ma’am.”

The woman laughs. “It’s no problem! When we saw you had floated up to the docks here, well. It was the least we could do to see if you were alive.” There’s a flicker of concern across her face as she adds, “The news has been reporting you three as dead ever since that battle in the bay two days ago.”

“Two days?!” Jin blurts out his words before he can stop himself, and Cheung can’t quite blame him. He hadn’t realized it had been that long either.

“I must apologize, but if we are presumed dead, then we absolutely must rush back to the Shatterdome in Hong Kong.”

“I thought that would be the case.” The woman nods and calls out to someone behind her. “Jiao! Get Liu over here! The Wei Tang brothers need to get back to Hong Kong to smash kaiju skulls!”

When they step out, the brothers find that Crimson Typhoon’s conn pod has floated far out, all the way to the shores of Pok Fu Lam. Liang Guan-Yin, their saviour, was a dairy farmer who had been out with her grandchildren for a shopping trip. When they’d seen Crimson’s conn pod floating close to the shore, they had changed directions, which was lucky for all of them. Even more fortunate was that, in the back of her pick-up truck, Mrs. Liang had an... alternative mode of transportation that she was gracious enough to let the Wei Tangs borrow, in exchange for their autographs and a group picture on her cellphone.

This was why, as the sun rose three days after the Breach was shut for good, three men in crimson red Jaeger drive suits puttered up to the Hong Kong Shatterdome on a borrowed scooter, confusing the hell out of the guards at the gate.

“Hey!” Cheung shouted as he waved at them. “Call the Marshall, would you?”

“And call the cafeteria too!”, added Jin, with a cheeky grin on his face. “I could eat a whole pig!”

“I could eat its mother!” calls Hu, earning himself a punch on the shoulder from Jin. Cheung can’t help but join in on the fun, relief at finally getting home flooding his body.

“You may as well bring the entire farm out! We haven’t had a good meal in days!”


End file.
